Aircraft utilize a wide variety of systems and devices to provide comfort and safety for passengers. For example, passive safety systems such as seatbelts retain passengers in their seats during a rapid deceleration event.
Even though many safety systems used on passenger aircraft are viable, certain types of safety systems remain untenable. For example, safety devices that are provided to individual passengers may need to fit within the amount of space reserved for each passenger. Hence, bulky or unwieldy safety systems may not be feasible. Furthermore, even systems which would be compact when installed may cause problems after they have been deployed during a rapid deceleration event. For example, air bags may increase in volume by a factor of hundreds or thousands of times during deployment, and air bags therefore leave large hanging swaths of fabric after deployment. These swaths of fabric may interfere with the degree of passenger egress required by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards. Thus, while air bags remain common in automotive transportation, they are infeasible for aircraft.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.